[SOLVED] Installed 16GB extra RAM, might be faulty?

[oscar123124]

Dear Forum members,

In April this year I bought a Dell XPS Tower 8940.
Specs:

• 11th gen intel(R) Core(™) i9-11900k@3.50GHz (16CPUs)
• Memory: 32768MB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (total memory: 24270MB, display memory: 8050MB, shared memory: 16220MB)

My BIOS is SMBIOSBIOSVersion 2.1.3 and all drivers are up-to-date. There is no malware present. I am a motion designer by trade, I do not game. Adobe After Effects for my work is the only heavy program I use.

Of the installed RAM, 16GB is installed myself. Since I am not too familiar with hardware I took great care to make sure it was compatible by contacting the Dell customer & sales support. It was a bad experience but they did recommend me the following RAM stick: https://www.dell.com/nl-nl/shop/del...2rx8-ddr4-udimm-3200mhz/apd/ab120717/geheugen (Site in Dutch, apologies. Specs should be universal).

I knew AE previewing slow on 16GB RAM was a risk so I was not too bothered. Upon installing the extra 16GB I still experienced problems, and frankly the past few weeks they got worse. Memory often clocked all the way to 99%, I receive Out of Memory errors and my computer sometimes shuts down. First I thought it had something to do with the way I built my AE compositions, but they ran smoothly on peer computers which made my peers think there was a hardware issue with my new computer.

I tried troubleshooting and benchmark testing. I downloaded Speccy and found the computer is overheating which seems to be a common problem. I ordered a new fan to deal with that. It should arrive next Monday. However, my AE projects still lagg and crash even when the processor is cooled and the PC just booted up. The Processor is performing below the 4th percentile(!) and the PC itself performing 22nd percentile, below expectations. However, Benchmark Test also noted that the RAM was unrecognisable. But running a Windows Diagnostics Test turned up zero problems. I also ran CrystalDiskMark. Someone said the RAM is mixed vendor etc, but I asked Dell specifically, multiple times, what to buy and they recommended me this stick!

My question: Is the 16GB RAM stick I ordered faulty/incompatible? Could it be the cause of all my problems? Or is there a different problem I might be overlooking/have not tested for yet? And is the 32GB RAM stick in the link below compatible, or will a 8+8+16+32GB setup be horrible?


To make things worse, I thought it may have been my fault initially and ordered another 32GB RAM stick which should arrive next week. But now I doubt that is the problem. I ordered this RAM stick: https://www.dell.com/nl-nl/shop/del...-ddr4-udimm-3200mhz-xmp/apd/ab600821/geheugen meaning by RAM setup would be 8+8+16+32

I am losing days of work and these technical issues are making me lose my mind. I am way out of my depth here. I do not know what to do and Dell customer support is abysmal and unhelpful.

 

[oscar123124]

show me the codes and I will go make sure for you.

The codes on the ram you are buying from Amazon, then I go look to see what I can find on google about it and your PC

Ok!

RAM specifications from Amazon:
Crucial storage (DDR4, 2400 MT/s, PC4-19200) 3200 MT/s 64GB Kit (32GBx2) Single Rank green

Merk	‎Crucial
Fabrikant	‎Crucial
Serie	‎Crucial DDR4 3200 MT/s DIMMs
Productafmetingen	‎13.34 x 0.08 x 3.12 cm; 38 gram
Modelnummer item	‎CT2K32G4DFD832A
Kleur	‎Groen
RAM-grootte	‎64 GB
Soort computergeheugen	‎DDR4 SDRAM
Kloksnelheid geheugen	‎3200 MHz
Voltage	‎1.2 Volt
Batterijen wel of niet meegeleverd	‎Nee
Fabrikant	‎Crucial
ASIN	‎B07ZLD6Q1G

I did some googling and this is the type of RAM compatible with my system (according to Dell):
Memory configurations supported
8 GB, 2 x 4 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM, dual-channel
8 GB, 1 x 8 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM
16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM, dual-channel
16 GB, 1 x 16 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM
32 GB, 1 x 32 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM
32 GB, 2 x 16 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM, dual-channel
64 GB, 2 x 32 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM, dual-channel
64 GB, 4 x 16 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM, dual-channel
128 GB, 4 x 32 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz/2933 MHz, UDIMM, dual-channel
NOTE The computer is shipped with 3200 MHz memory. However, with Intel Core i3/i5 processors, it is limited to 2666 MHz. With Intel Core i7/i9 processors, it is limited to 2933 MHz.

 

[Colif]

Yeah, I see that Crucial ram here, filter by qty of 64gb, its last in line - https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/xps-8940

should work if the ram maker says it does.

 

[oscar123124]

Yeah, I see that Crucial ram here, filter by qty of 64gb, its last in line - https://www.crucial.com/compatible-upgrade-for/dell/xps-8940

should work if the ram maker says it does.

Thank you very much! So to sum it up: order a Crucial Storage (DDR4, 2400MT/S, PC4-19200 3200 MT/s 64GB Kit (32GBx2) Single Rank. Remove all my RAM and install the 2x32GB sticks.


Cancel Dell's 32GB order (let's hope they allow that), try to return the 16GB since they told me to buy it when it is not recommended to combine dual & single channel.

 

[Colif]

try to return the 16GB since they told me to buy it when it is not recommended to combine dual & single channel.

you can run dual and single. The sticking point is when the sticks aren't the same.

Say if you bought 4 x 16gb in a set and one stopped working, you could easily keep using the 3rd stick by itself.
but adding an extra non matching stick into 2nd channel can cause problems. It doesn't always cause problems, it can work. its just not guaranteed to work.

I am just hoping the problem is fixed with the new ram. If it hadn't happened before you added more, it should be fixed.

 

[oscar123124]

you can run dual and single. The sticking point is when the sticks aren't the same.

Say if you bought 4 x 16gb in a set and one stopped working, you could easily keep using the 3rd stick by itself.
but adding an extra non matching stick into 2nd channel can cause problems. It doesn't always cause problems, it can work. its just not guaranteed to work.

I am just hoping the problem is fixed with the new ram. If it hadn't happened before you added more, it should be fixed.

I will keep you in the loop once the new sticks have been ordered. Thanks!

 

[oscar123124]

you can run dual and single. The sticking point is when the sticks aren't the same.

Say if you bought 4 x 16gb in a set and one stopped working, you could easily keep using the 3rd stick by itself.
but adding an extra non matching stick into 2nd channel can cause problems. It doesn't always cause problems, it can work. its just not guaranteed to work.

I am just hoping the problem is fixed with the new ram. If it hadn't happened before you added more, it should be fixed.

Final question for now: it would be a bit too adventurous to run a 32+32+8+8 build with the 8+8GB Dual Channel in my PC right now, right?

 

[Colif]

Its worth a try, but if you get memory errors again, just stick to a set that doesn't cause errors.